FAQ

What is HardTalk™?

HardTalk™ offers a solution to damaging problems; one that you hadn’t realised how much you needed. HardTalk™ improves company performance by teaching individuals, and teams, the lasting communication skills needed to tackle the difficult conversations we encounter in the workplace.

What do you mean by difficult conversations?

Have you ever found yourself in a situation where you had to have a conversation with someone about a difficult subject and you were worried about achieving a positive outcome? Perhaps you needed to discuss an employee’s poor performance or tell your boss that a deadline would be missed or persuade a client that they needed to change their decision. Were you dreading it? Wouldn’t it have been helpful to have some skills training to ensure you did it in the best way and generated the best outcome? That is what HardTalk™ is all about.

Who is HardTalk™ for?

HardTalk™ is for anyone who:

Has to speak to other human beings to get things done and has experienced disappointment with how well this has gone in the past

Is responsible for and invested in the workplace culture (P.S – that’s everyone!)

How does the programme work?

The HardTalk™ programme has been designed specifically to provide lasting results in your ability to have difficult conversations, whether as individuals or for your whole company. The programme has 3 main elements that can be customised to fit your needs. Before Training our team can conduct an audit of your organisation in order to ensure there are no obvious obstacles to the HardTalk™ training being implemented. The Training itself offers both our core programme, which tackles general cases of HardTalk™, and our applications, which address specific industry or sector HardTalk™ challenges. After Training the programme provides various elements to ensure the lessons ‘stick’ which include Live Rehearsal, coaching and much more.

So is it like a talk?

No it isn’t. HardTalk™ is incredibly interactive. Whilst our research and knowledge has resulted in the tools the programme teaches, the development of those skills in participants must be done in a practical way to be most effective. Our interactive workshops encourage participants to volunteer example of difficult conversations they have personally experienced so our lessons can be applied in a relatable way. The progamme also uses expert videos (including from FBI negotiators) and constant self-assessment to reinforce the training throughout.

How long does it take?

The entire programme is modular so it can be tailored to your organisation’s needs and available time. It would take approximately 3 days in total to complete the whole progamme, if done in consecutive whole day sessions. The programme can be split into smaller sessions which can be spread over a period of days or weeks if needed.

What makes it different from other soft skills training courses?

It is a sad reality that many soft skills training courses ultimately fail to produce lasting and beneficial results. In most cases this is because the lessons learnt are all too quickly forgotten. HardTalk™ is as much about the results as it is about the skills; its focus is your bottom line. Everything about the programme has been designed to ensure lasting and successful results by catering the programme to participant’s needs, focusing on actual behavioural change and finally by making it stick.

What difference will it make to my company/my performance?

The implications of avoiding or failing at having difficult conversations can severely impact your company’s performance, and your individual performance. Difficult conversations can occur across a range of subjects and between people of vastly different opinions, ethnicities, cultures, experiences, aims, ages, gender and religions – all of which can reduce the chances of productive or effective outcomes. Failing to tackle these difficult conversations effectively can stunt your individual development and your professional growth. For companies, the impact can be even more detrimental and actually affect their bottom line; over 60% of employees have seen mishandled conflict communication result in work absences, injuries and project failure. This is exactly what HardTalk™ aims to prevent.

Our company already has a lot of other programmes, will HardTalk™ link in with them?

Yes. Our HardTalk™ programme is certified and has been created from research in psychology, sociology, behavioural economics and neuroscience as well as original research conducted in the Middle East.

Is your programme certified?

Yes. Our HardTalk™ programme is certified and has been created from research in psychology, sociology, behavioural economics and neuroscience as well as original research conducted in the Middle East.

You have research specific to the Middle East?

We do! Despite the tremendous amount of business done in this region, there is precious little research on the dynamics of the workplace. HardTalk™ has conducted local surveys to learn more about the communication challenges faced by employees and managers across the Middle East. Whilst global research is valuable, and was used to build our programme, there are many elements that are more relevant to the Middle East, such as our high levels of diversity, which made local and regional research an essential component of HardTalk™.

Who will conduct the programme?

We have a range of expert facilitators who can conduct the progamme for your organisation, both in English or Arabic. We are also able to offer in-house certification for members of your staff.

How much does it cost?

HardTalk™ is a modular programme that can be specifically tailored to your needs and therefore the cost is bespoke to each situation.

I have a specific and recurring situation within my organisation, can this help?

That’s exactly what HardTalk™ is for! In HardTalk™ we talk about organisational aches, pains and emergencies; your organisation’s pains and emergencies are repetitive problems that erode your company’s culture and ultimately cost you money. Our programme can address those issues in completely bespoke training sessions.

How many employees can take part?

There are no fixed numbers for HardTalk™, we can work with individuals or whole companies and everything in between.

It sounds good, but don’t people just forget the lessons a week later?

Not with HardTalk™, we Make It Stick. The HardTalk™ training programme has been specifically designed to produce lasting behavioural change so you keep using its lessons in the future. Not only does the programme teach in a way that maximises retention and adapts the way people actually think about communication in the future, but it also has extensive post-programme elements that reinforce this further.

Do you do individual training?

The Membership Portal is available to all those who have participated in the HardTalk™ training. It provides exclusive resources to enhance and complete the programme. As a member, you are able to access research findings, conduct post-programme audits and complete questionnaires designed to give you further insights into how your brain works in HardTalk™ scenarios. It is designed to be a community for HardTalk™ in which members can ask questions, compare scenarios and learn from others. The HardTalk™ team are always there to provide guidance, led discussions and answer questions.

What is ‘LiveRehearsal’?

LiveRehearsal is a truly unique service. It is a way of confirming that the skills have been embedded and will therefore generate the results your investment requires. HardTalk™ is not only the first programme to use this in the Middle East, but we are also the exclusive distributors.

I don’t see my industry in the applications list, does that mean it wouldn’t work for my company?

Not at all, our HardTalk™ applications address more common examples of difficult conversation scenarios and the cost they have to your business. Some of these are industry specific, but many are not. HardTalk™ addresses all types of difficult conversations and our communication skills training is useful for all companies across all industries.